RETAINING WALLS TO THE COLD BATH, OCTAGON POOL AND WATERY WALK

List Entry Summary

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.

Name: RETAINING WALLS TO THE COLD BATH, OCTAGON POOL AND WATERY WALK

List entry Number: 1052955

Location

RETAINING WALLS TO THE COLD BATH, OCTAGON POOL AND WATERY WALK

The building may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County: Oxfordshire

District: West Oxfordshire

District Type: District Authority

Parish: Rousham

National Park: Not applicable to this List entry.

Grade: II*

Date first listed: 27-Aug-1957

Date of most recent amendment: 29-Jun-1988

Legacy System Information

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System: LBS

UID: 252886

Asset Groupings

This list entry does not comprise part of an Asset Grouping. Asset Groupings are not part of the official record but are added later for information.

List entry Description

Summary of Building

Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.

Reasons for Designation

Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.

History

Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.

Details

ROUSHAM ROUSHAM PARK GARDENS
SP4724
14/230 Retaining walls to The Cold
27/08/57 Bath, Octagon Pool and Watery
Walk
(Formerly listed under The
Cold Bath and small adjoining
pavilion...)
GV II*
Retaining walls. c.1738-40, by William Kent. Squared and coursed limestone.
Surround octagonal Cold Bath with ashlar rim and larger Octagon Pond in Venus'
Vale. Serpentine stream of channelled limestone runs from spring near Temple of
Echo (q.v.) through Cold Bath to Octagon Pond. The serpentine stream is of great
importance as the earliest example of the Rococo "line of beauty" applied to
garden design and is the embodiment of Kent's dictum that "Nature abhors a
straight line": it is known as both the Watery Walk and The Rill. Part of the
landscape gardens laid out by William Kent between 1733-40.
(Rousham Park is included in the H.B.M.C. Register of Parks and Gardens at Grade
I; Buildings of England: Oxfordshire: pp745-6; M.I. Wilson, William Kent
1685-1748, 1984, p214)

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